Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has declared a month-long state of emergency in Basra, which has been plagued by sectarian clashes, anarchy and factional rivalry. Visiting the city, Mr Maliki said he would use an "iron fist" to crush those who threaten security. The prime minister has accused criminal gangs of holding the city's oil exports and other trade to ransom. More than 100 people have died in the last month in Basra - until recently seen as one of Iraq's safer cities. Relations between Basra's garrison of 8,000-odd British troops and the city's dominant Shias used to be cordial but have deteriorated rapidly in the past few months. Nine British soldiers were killed in May alone.... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Authorities in Barbados are still trying to discover how a boat carrying the bodies of 11 men was found adrift off the Barbadian coast a month ago. Police believe the men were mostly from Senegal after finding an Air Senegal ticket on board and a note left by one of the dying men. In the note, the man speaks of his family in Bassada, Senegal. "Please excuse me and goodbye", he says. It is thought the men were attempting to reach Spain's Canary Islands. Coastguards brought the 20ft (6m) unmarked boat into port at Bridgetown after the gruesome discovery was made by a local fisherman in April. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5029230.stm

The bodies of two U.S. Marines missing after a helicopter crashed in western Iraq over the weekend have been recovered, the military said Tuesday. The U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was on a maintenance test flight when it went down Saturday in the volatile western region of Anbar. The military said hostile fire was not suspected as the cause, but the crash was under investigation. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5854740,00.html

The rate at which people are infected with HIV may have peaked in the late 1990s, according to a UNAIDS report. It found the incidence of new HIV infections appears to have stabilised for the first time in 25 years. UNAIDS said improved funding and access to drugs appears to be producing results - but said HIV remains "an exceptional threat". It warned the infection rate is still rising in some countries, and record numbers now live with the virus. Click here to see map of worldwide HIV infection rates The agency, which surveyed 126 countries, estimated 38.6 million people are living with HIV worldwide. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5021074.stm

Israeli police said on Tuesday they had given up searching for the corpse of a baby girl snatched by ultra-Orthodox Jews who opposed her autopsy on the grounds that it was a desecration of the dead.Authorities said they believed that the tiny corpse had been secretly buried after it was removed from a morgue in the coastal city of Ashkelon on Sunday during a clash between stone-throwing ultra-Orthodox protesters and police. Police wanted an autopsy of the baby, who is believed to have died after her ultra-Orthodox parents gave her herbal remedies to cure an illness rather than prescribed antibiotics, to determine whether the death was due to negligence. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2019468

The EU's highest court today ruled that it was unlawful to order European airlines to hand over information about transatlantic air passengers to the US government.The European court of justice ruling said the US did not provide adequate protection for air passengers' privacy.Under the Passenger Name Records agreement, reached in May 2004, EU airlines have been obliged to give Washington 34 items of information about passengers flying to the US. The details include names, addresses, all forms of payment and contact telephone numbers. The ruling, which gives the European commission and member states four months to find a solution, maintains the legality of the agreement until September 30 "for reasons of legal certainty"....http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,1786002,00.html